The lead of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe, a close friend and fund raiser for the Clintons, over Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia, is a great sign for the future of the Democratic Party.
Cuccinelli is a truly nightmare nominee, with his extremist right wing views, and his decision to invite Ted Cruz and Rand Paul into the state to campaign for him, signs of true desperation on his part, and a sign of why the GOP is losing its hold in Virginia.
Cuccinelli’s Lieutenant Governor nominee, preacher E W Jackson, is even more of a right wing lunatic than Cuccinelli, and it is clear that young people, minorities, college educated people, women, and those who believe in socially moderate views are not willing to tolerate such narrow minded and bigoted nominees as Cuccinelli and Jackson.
It has often been said that how Virginia goes in the odd year elections affects Congressional elections the next year, and that has often rang true.
So the Virginia election results, now seen as a massive victory for the Democrats, is a good sign that the state is turning more blue, particularly because of northern Virginia federal government workers, but also because the Republican Party has been unduly influenced by its Tea Party lunatics in that state, as well as nationally, and has led to the highest rate of disapproval for the GOP nationally in its entire history, 63 percent!
As a Virginia voter, I totally agree. This is a great sign!
Hello Professor,
As a full confession, my Son-In-Law’s youngest brother was a Political Science Major and is an active member of the Republican Party. He was set to Virginia to work on the Governors race down there.
I personally hope he is not successful. 🙂
“Washington Post†[link follows] published a report showing Terry McAuliffe polling more than a 10-point lead over Ken Cuccinelli in next Tuesday’s [11.05.2013] Virginia gubernatorial election.
@ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-opens-up-double-digit-lead-over-cuccinelli-in-virginia-governors-race/2013/10/28/e81e2fb0-3c43-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html
At the rate it’s going, Terry McAuliffe is apparently poised to win this race, in a Democratic pickup, by a landslide margin. I hope the race gets called immediately as the polls close at 7 p.m. ET. That was the case in 2009 when Bob McDonnell won in a Republican pickup. However, that may not happen because, in the last two presidential elections of 2008 and 2012, the Republican-voting counties’ reported numbers of raw votes came in first. (Again, it could be called early if Ken Cuccinelli severely underperforms in the state’s western Republican areas and, gulp, if Terry McAuliffe wins Democratic pickups in a number of them. Of course, exit polls should reveal that McAuliffe, if he wins by more than 10 points statewide, would likely win male along with female voters.)
In 2009, Gov. Bob McDonnell won the state with 58.62 percent of the vote, a percentage margin of a landslide R+17.36, and a raw-vote margin of R+344,614. Among the counties in McDonnell’s column were bellwether counties Henrico (Richmond) and Loudoun (Leesburg), both having carried for President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 elections. (With Henrico County, add the separate blue independent city Richmond even though it did carry for the defeated Creigh Deeds. In 2008, Obama became the first Democrat to win Henrico County since Harry Truman in 1948, and the first from his party to win Loudoun County since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.) Loudoun County did not carry for the 2001 gubernatorial election of now-senior Va. U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). But it did flip Democratic for the 2005 gubernatorial election of now-junior Va. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine. Kaine also won over the Tidewater region which includes Chesapeake, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Virginia City—the Hampton Roads area. Those were in the 2009 column for Bob McDonnell. Yet they all carried in 2005 for Tim Kaine. And I believe they will end up in the 2013 column for Terry McAuliffe. Also watch for Prince William County (Manassas), which Obama won in 2008 for the first time for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 LBJ, to deliver carriage—given it has recently produced strong blue margins (above statewide level), and that it carried for McDonnell under his statewide percentage margin. You can also add the very blue Fairfax County (Alexandria). This is more than enough for elect Terry McAuliffe the next and 72nd Governor of Virginia.
I believe the Democrats will sweep all four offices. And a big part of that is the recent government shutdown. It’s moved the voting electorate of Virginia in this direction. And the “quality†of Republican nominees—especially at the top of the party ticket—is getting rejected. What will be truly remarkable is a willingness to break from pattern. For the first time in 40 years, Virginia is likely to elect a governor from the same party as the incumbent president of the United States. Va. had been carrying in gubernatorial elections for candidates opposite incumbent presidents since the election of 1977.
My local paper doesn’t like Ken Cuccinelli, so they are endorsing the Libertarian candidate, Robert Sarvis.
An interesting thing is that my family hasn’t been bombarded by a lot of political robocalls from the Democratic candidates in my neck of woods in Virginia. I guess maybe they are concentrating on Northern Virginia and the tidewater area.
Now we’re getting the robocalls on the eve of the election.